OSNews

Is it just another smartphone with similar capabilities as a Iphone, pre, android, mameo phone? Or is there anything really uniquely compelling about it?

This is the second time I saw a heading with Windows Mobile 7 in the last 2 days. The last time was in 2009, and ever since then I have been disappointed that no phone had it.

I just bought a Zune HD. I had to let it ship over from the US since they don't sell them here in Holland but it took me a long time to decide whether I would go for the Zune HD or the iPod touch.

I can tell you, I absolutely love it. First question that raised me was: Why doesn't Microsoft use the Zune HD OS for their mobile platform? And now I'm reading that they are, that is great news. All I want is to call with my Zune HD now which is of course not possible but will be in about a year.

I have a Blackberry Bold 9000 right now and it's great but I'm very curious about Seven, if it's as good as the Zune HD or even better it might be my next phone, who knows.

So Microsoft’s ‘solution’ to a crappy mobile browser is Silverlight? Joy.

I'm quite excited about this.

I got a Android (HTC Hero) last summer, and quite frankly its terrible, slow, crashing alot, but Nice UI.

And from what i have read (and can hope for) WM7 will sort out the UI issues on WM, and provide the consumer features that consumers what.

And if the reports are correct, the first ones will appear in September this year, just in time for my upgrade in December

Due to the large size of Microsoft it's clear to see why the UI of their products is so varied.

Windows Mobile was built around two flawed / outdated practices.

The first was to drive and fit the Windows desktop metaphor to a mobile device with a small screen. I understand why they done it, to give users a interface they were familiar with, however as demonstrated by nokia and palm of that era, the general public is not stupid and will generally work out how to use a product.

The second was to continue the use of the stylus, some people still like using a stylus however for the vast majority of users this is cumbersome and a slow method of interactive with a mobile device. From experience, ive had to stop walking or moving to be able to tap with a stylus, however with my iphone, i can walk and type and interact with the device without any problems.

As mentioned earlier by another poster with a Zune HD, this interface is a perfect fit for the media device and is a clever device, this ui would also fit neatly with a mobile phone device, however it seems that the two departments of zune and windows mobile are unable to collaborate. Again the UI of Windows 7 is very good and has pushed the desktop futher in the productivity that can be accomplished, but then you fire up some windows server applications such as DPM and the UI is a mess and looks very alpha/beta quality.

I don't think it matters too much when Windows 7 arrives as the damage has already been done (i.e. slip in market share). It's really important that Microsoft first and foremost implements a solid and consistent UI. The next is that some of the underlying technology needs to be better implemented, when i last used a windows mobile phone, there was a limit on the number of processes that could run (I think it was WM5), this really highlights the age of the core of Windows Mobile. Im not saying they should rewrite the whole thing from scratch, but really apply the same development process as was used for Windows 7. Buff up some parts and perhaps recode some other parts and really shine it up.

They have to work hard to compete against Apple, Google, palm and to a lesser degree nokia. I say a lesser degree for nokia as i feel that their UI could do with a large refresh.